A method and system for coupling optical signals into silicon optoelectronic chips are disclosed and may include coupling one or more optical signals into a back surface of a CMOS photonic chip comprising photonic, electronic, and optoelectronic devices. The devices may be integrated in a front surface of the chip and one or more optical couplers may receive the optical signals in the front surface of the chip. The optical signals may be coupled into the back surface of the chip via one or more optical fibers and/or optical source assemblies. The optical signals may be coupled to the grating couplers via a light path etched in the chip, which may be refilled with silicon dioxide. The chip may be flip-chip bonded to a packaging substrate. Optical signals may be reflected back to the grating couplers via metal reflectors, which may be integrated in dielectric layers on the chip.

In an example, a photonic system includes a Si PIC with a Si substrate, a SiO.sub.2 box formed on the Si substrate, a first layer, and a second layer. The first layer is formed above the SiO.sub.2 box and includes a SiN waveguide with a coupler portion at a first end and a tapered end opposite the first end. The second layer is formed above the SiO.sub.2 box and vertically displaced above or below the first layer. The second layer includes a Si waveguide with a tapered end aligned in two orthogonal directions with the coupler portion of the SiN waveguide such that the tapered end of the Si waveguide overlaps in the two orthogonal directions and is parallel to the coupler portion of the SiN waveguide. The tapered end of the SiN waveguide is configured to be adiabatically coupled to a coupler portion of an interposer waveguide.

An example system includes a grating coupled laser, a laser optical interposer (LOI), an optical isolator, and a light redirector. The grating coupled laser includes a laser cavity and a transmit grating optically coupled to the laser cavity. The transmit grating is configured to diffract light emitted by the laser cavity out of the grating coupled laser. The LOI includes an LOI waveguide with an input end and an output end. The optical isolator is positioned between the surface coupled edge emitting laser and the LOI. The light redirector is positioned to redirect the light, after the light passes through the optical isolator, into the LOI waveguide of the LOI.

An optical circulator is a device that routes optical pulses from port to port in a predetermined manner, e.g. in a 3-port optical circulator, optical pulses entering port 1 are routed out of port 2, while optical pulses entering port 2 exit out of port 3 and optical pulses fed into port 3 exit out of port 3. Currently such an optical circulator is made of discrete components such as magnetooptic garnets, rare-earth magnets and optical polarizers that are packaged together with fiber optic elements. Disclosed herein is a different kind of optical circulator that is monolithically integrated on a single semiconductor substrate and that is applicable for the routing of optical pulses. The embodied invention will enable photonic integrated circuits to incorporate on-chip optical circulator functionality thereby allowing much more complex optical designs to be implemented monolithically.

An optical attenuator and/or optical terminator is provided. The device includes an optical channel having two regions with different optical properties, such as an undoped silicon region which is less optically absorptive and a doped silicon region which is more optically absorptive. Other materials may also be used. A facet at the interface between the two regions is oriented at a non-perpendicular angle relative to a longitudinal axis of the channel. The angle can be configured to mitigate back reflection. Multiple facets may be included between different pairs of regions. The device may further include curved and/or tapers to further facilitate attenuation and/or optical termination.

Provided is an optical isolator including a semiconductor substrate, an optical attenuator and an optical amplifier aligned with each other on the semiconductor substrate, an input optical waveguide connected to the optical attenuator, and an output optical waveguide connected to the optical amplifier, wherein a gain of the optical amplifier decreases based on an intensity of light incident on the optical amplifier increasing, wherein a first input light incident on the optical attenuator through the input optical waveguide is output as a first output light through the output optical waveguide, and a second input light incident on the optical amplifier through the output optical waveguide is output as a second output light through the input optical waveguide, and wherein when an intensity of the first input light and an intensity of the second input light are equal, an intensity of the first output light is greater than an intensity of the second output light.

A gyroscope comprises a source emitting a broadband beam, and a first waveguide arrangement that splits the beam into CCW and CW beams. First and second phase modulators are coupled to the waveguide arrangement and provide phase modulations or frequency shifts to the CCW and CW beams. An optical resonator is in communication with the phase modulators such that the CCW and CW beams are optically coupled into the resonator. A second waveguide arrangement receives the CCW and CW beams transmitted from the resonator. First and second RIN detectors are coupled to the second waveguide arrangement and respectively receive the CCW and CW beams. A rate detector receives the CCW and CW beams. A rate calculation unit receives intensity noise signals from the RIN detectors, and rate and intensity noise signals from the rate detector. The rate calculation unit performs a RIN subtraction technique to reduce intensity noise limited ARW.

A composite confinement apparatus assembly is provided. The composite confinement apparatus assembly includes a quantum object confinement apparatus and a photonic platform. The confinement apparatus includes one or more electrical components and is fabricated on a confinement apparatus substrate. The photonic platform includes one or more photonic components that are hosted by a photonic platform substrate. The photonic platform substrate is mechanically coupled to the confinement apparatus substrate to form the composite confinement apparatus assembly.

A method and system for coupling optical signals into silicon optoelectronic chips are disclosed and may include coupling one or more optical signals into a back surface of a CMOS photonic chip comprising photonic, electronic, and optoelectronic devices. The devices may be integrated in a front surface of the chip and one or more optical couplers may receive the optical signals in the front surface of the chip. The optical signals may be coupled into the back surface of the chip via one or more optical fibers and/or optical source assemblies. The optical signals may be coupled to the grating couplers via a light path etched in the chip, which may be refilled with silicon dioxide. The chip may be flip-chip bonded to a packaging substrate. Optical signals may be reflected back to the grating couplers via metal reflectors, which may be integrated in dielectric layers on the chip.

A photonic integrated circuit (PIC) is grown by epitaxy on a substrate. The PIC includes at least one active element, at least one passive element, and a dielectric waveguide. The at least one active and passive elements are formed over the substrate and are in optical contact with each other. The dielectric waveguide is formed over the substrate, and is in optical contact with the at least one active and passive elements. The at least one active and passive elements each are formed using a III-V compound semiconductor material.